Bao Ninh

Bao Ninh (18 October 1952-) was a North Vietnamese veteran of the Vietnam War and a novelist and essayist after the war's end.

Biography
Bao Ninh was born in Nghe An, Vietnam in 1952, and the bombing of his school in Hanoi and the US invasion of Southeast Asia (which reminded his parents of the French invaders) motivated him to join the NVA in 1969 at the age of 17. He was one of just ten survivors of his 500-strong brigade during the war, and he came to believe that, in war, nobody won or lost, but only destruction was brought about. In 1980, he published his first novel, The Sorrow of War, but he had trouble with publishing other books due to censorship in his country.